Shakes and shopping

Well another Huge quake hit wellington on friday afternoon.  A massive 6.6, at only 8kms deep and bigger than the 6.5 in July.  The worst case senerio too with mum stuck at work with all public transport suspended, kids at school and dad at work in Lower Hutt trying to get in contact with mum who was trying to get in touch with dad, but all phone lines were jammed......

All worked out fine, text messages went through eventually and girls and Josh were collected by dad while mum set out on foot to walk back to the Hutt Valley.  Luckily mum soon encountered 1000's of workers waiting for buses and car drivers stopping and offering lifts to various locations.  A quick decision to grab a lift back to the Hutt with a lovely lady called Angela turned out to be a blessing as it turned out she also lived in Silverstream.  We were early enough to have missed most of the gridlock too.  It was amazing to see the considerate drivers offering lifts to as many as could fit in their cars as the 1000's of workers were fleeing the city as office buildings were evacuated and shut pending engineer safety checks....again!  Angela is a lovely lady, having come to New Zealand after surviving massive injuries in the 7.2 Bucharest Earthquake in 1977.  She was very glad to have company on her journey home.

Aftershocks continued for a good 6-7 hours with the largest being 6.0.  This time round the quakes had subsided to a level that the girls eventually slept through them all but one, with everyone awake at 3am but getting back to sleep till 7.

I keep thinking we have missed a bullet still.... it was still some distance away and only a 6.6!  And a good job these wooded houses take the energy and sway but stay up!

Saturday was horse riding - you can not feel quakes when moving !!! then a bit of clothes shopping at Savemart as India has rugby on Tuesday (broken bones anticipated!!!).  As usual Saffron ends up finding the lovely fashion clothes and India is happy with rugby boots, shirt and shorts!